


Trust

by SingManyFaces



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Force Bond (Star Wars), Gen, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Post-Episode: s02e21-22 Twilight of the Apprentice, Shippy Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 17:34:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20213623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingManyFaces/pseuds/SingManyFaces
Summary: “The first thing an initiate learned to trust was the Force.  The first thing a Padawan learned to trust was their Master,inthe Force.”Three moments when Ahsoka recognized Anakin in the Force.





	Trust

**Author's Note:**

> Some dialogue borrowed from TCW season three, episode 16, “Altar of Mortis.”

The first thing an initiate learned to trust was the Force. The first thing a Padawan learned to trust was their Master, _in_ the Force.

“After everything we went through on Christophsis, _this_ is giving you pause? Really?”

Ahsoka sat on the wide guard rail of the observation deck, looking down at her new Master waiting on the floor of the salle; it was the first time they’d entered the place together. “Those were life or death situations,” she pointed out, “Not just jumping off a ledge for—for—” She shook her head, made an expansive hand motion. “_Fun._”

“Come on, Snips,” he planted his hands on his hips, “don’t you trust me?”

She leaned her chin on her raised knee and gave him a considering look. “…maybe if you weren’t grinning like that.” 

“What!” The laugh it surprised from him lightened his face, made him look as young as he was rather than how old he seemed to feel. “This was always one of my favorite lessons!”

Eyes widening, she leaned forward. “Master Kenobi did _this?_”

His grin settled back into place, accompanied by an arched brow. “Where else would I have learned it?” She could feel the Force starting to gather as he extended his hands, palms up. “Now hop to it,” stressing the title, “Padawan.”

Sighing, Ahsoka shifted into a crouch, then got to her feet atop the rail. She closed her eyes and centered herself, felt the bottled storm that was her Master’s presence in the Force beneath her. Holding her arms out from her sides she took a deep breath and, releasing it, let herself fall forward.

The storm rose to meet her, rushed in a wave over her skin—and calmed, held her in its eye. The presence she had thought of, so appropriately, as a torrent now wrapped her as gently as a beloved blanket, held her in warm protection. And then three words, clear as a bell in her mind, reassured her in a voice that wasn’t her own.

_I have you._

She might’ve gasped, she wasn’t sure. Amusement pulsed warmly in the Force, and she heard her Master again. _Open your eyes._

Doing as she was told, she found herself less than a meter off the ground; she hadn’t even felt it when he’d rotated her, pointing her feet toward the floor as she faced him. “See?” His tone was teasing as he lowered his hands, gently setting her down. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“No,” she answered without hesitation, smiling brightly, “it wasn’t.”

~*~

For a small eternity there was Nothing. And then suddenly a voice:

_I **have **you!_

And then came the light, peeling away the Nothing and pouring into her, filling her up to drive out the dark. It was warm, familiar, as it settled into her heart to pulse with a steady rhythm. She floated gently on the wave of that light as it lifted her out of the Nothing, carried her back to the voice. Though it was so much closer now it sounded smaller, creaking with love and shot through with desperation.

_Come back to me. Please—open your eyes!_

The air slammed into Ahsoka’s lungs with her first breath and she convulsed upright with the effort of her coughing. She was still blinking when Anakin folded her into his arms, his heart pounding so hard she could feel it through his chest. “Hey, Snips,” he murmured.

Realization hit her as hard as her breath had.

The light that had carried her, that she could still feel thrumming under her skin—it was his. In a daze she got to her feet, blearily caught sight of The Father holding The Daughter. Her voice came out rough as she looked between Obi-Wan and Anakin, “What’s going on?” What had happened?

“Uh, not much.” Anakin shifted on his feet, blocking her view. He didn’t take his hand from her shoulder as he smiled down at her; it wasn’t quite steady. “It’s good to see you.”

Whatever he had done, he hadn’t been sure it would work—she could feel his lingering fear in the Force. But that was just as confusing to her as the rest of the scene she had woken to; her Master never failed her. And, as she felt the light still thrumming in her heart, she couldn’t imagine him ever doing so. 

~*~

He had always been powerful. The most powerful, some said, the intensity of a bottled sandstorm howling from his side of their bond in the old days. That, she figured, was why it had taken her so long to figure it out, why she’d needed to get so close. That cold, that aching Nothing in the Force—it wasn’t an _absence_ of him, just an inversion. Ahsoka hadn’t wanted to believe it at first, but there on Malachor it became undeniable. That Presence was him.

And it was that Presence that wrapped around her now.

Where it had been comforting as a blanket before, it felt like the vacuum of space against her skin now, chilling and poised to tear her apart. He extended a hand, palm up—the motion as elegant as it ever had been—and that Presence began to tighten around her. She could feel her heels begin to rise from the floor.

“I _won’t _leave you—” Ahsoka had barely repeated the words when she felt the grip settle around her throat, sure as a physical touch.

She’d meant it when she’d said it during their fight, and she meant it now. His eye, still exposed and eerie gold in the low light filtering into the ruined temple, stared into her own; she met his gaze as evenly as she could, forcing herself to stillness, not struggling even as it grew more difficult to draw air. Maybe he was angry—she could feel the old hurt, feelings she’d thought long resolved, flickering through his mind. Maybe it was a test...but if so, it was one that she trusted she would pass.

Because she had seen it.

He had pushed her away when he could have easily cut her down. He had faltered at the sound of his name, and when he had said her own. Risky though it may be, she believed in those moments. No doubt his new master would call them a weakness but, as she saw it, Anakin’s greatest strength had always been found in what others would call weakness in him.

And she had always been called reckless.

_Open your eyes!_ Ahsoka called to him in the Force, with a desperation that was born of thinking him dead for over fifteen years. She felt the shock ripple through him as she seized on the tattered remains of their bond and forged it new; flooded it, as he once had, with all the light she had in her, her love, her loyalty to him._ I have you!_ And she would not let go again.

He staggered back only a step but she fell to her knees hard on the ground, dragging in a ragged breath; her throat was sore but still functional. When she raised her head he was already looking down at her, conflict wavering in his eye as clearly as when she had first carved the crack into his mask. The ruins were quiet but for the hiss of his damaged respirator. Then, “Rise, apprentice.” He took a few limping steps passed her before stopping again, as if waiting. “We will have much to discuss.”

She didn’t hesitate to get to her feet, the beginning of a smile curving her lips as she followed after him. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! You can find me on tumblr @singmanyfaces if you want to drop by. :D


End file.
